02May17

Key component of world's longest cross-sea bridge installed

The wedge, 12 meters long, and weighing more than 25 Airbus A380 jets, was lowered to connect the
tubes which will form the tunnel section of the bridge, said Lin Ming, chief engineer of the island and
tunnel section of the bridge.

The 55-kilometer bridge connects Zhuhai in Guangdong Province with Hong Kong and Macao. It includes
a 22.9-km bridge and 6.7-km tunnel.

Before the wedge was installed on Tuesday, 33 immersed tubes, each 180 meters long and weighing
80,000 tonnes, had been installed.

"There is only one wedge for a tunnel, and we cannot afford to fail in its installation. It took two years to
prepare for today," said Chen Yue, director of the chief engineer's office of the bridge's island and tunnel
section. The installation procedure took more than 10 hours.

"The margin of error for the wedge is 1.5 centimeters. We have to measure precisely the influence of
wind, current and buoyancy force," said Lin.

"It is like putting a needle through a hole in the sea – a truly unprecedented event in the history of
transportation," Lin said.

A gigantic crane, which was transformed from a tanker, was used to hoist the wedge, lowering it to the
desired destination between the tubes.

The wedge will be welded and finished by June, Lin said.

By the end of the year, the bridge will be open to traffic, said Zhu Yongling, director of the bridge
management bureau.

Construction began in December of 2009 at Zhuhai. The Y-shaped bridge connects Lantau Island in Hong
Kong with Zhuhai and Macao.

Tan Guoshun, an expert in bridge construction who has participated in many big projects, told Xinhua
that breakthroughs were made in construction management, technique, safety and environmental
protection.

For instance, the bridge is designed to be used for 120 years. "Anticorrosion and quake-proof measures
were improved so as to make the goal possible," he said.

The bridge was pieced together with different parts built in different locations like building blocks. "The
progress of China's equipment manufacturing industry made this construction method possible," said
Zhong Huihong, deputy chief engineer of the bridge management bureau.

Take the floating crane as an example. In the 1990s, China's floating cranes could only handle about one
hundred tonnes. "Now their capacity has reached 10,000 tonnes," Zhong said.

"Some foreigners believe that completion of the bridge marks a leap forward of China's construction
industry," said Su Quanke, chief engineer of the bridge management bureau.

The bridge will cut land travel time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai from three hours on the road to a
30-minute drive.

"As economic exchanges between Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai deepen, an urban agglomeration has
formed. The bridge will further boost the interconnection," said Zheng Tianxiang, vice president of the
Asia-Pacific Innovation Economic Research Institute.

Guo Wanda, executive vice president of the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute, believes that
the bridge could also help boost the industrial gradient transfer of inland provinces like Guizhou, Yunnan,
Hunan and Jiangxi.

"The area will become an important hub of the Belt and Road Initiative," he said.

[Source: Xinhua, Guangzhou, 02May17]

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